#32 WALKED THE WALK IN VALUING HUMAN RIGHTS

 

REV. CANON BORDEN PURCELL

My 4^th cousin, Borden Purcell, was an Anglican minister who didn’t just “talk the talk” but always and deliberately “walked the walk”. I wonder what actions he would take to address today’s issues of refugees, immigration, homelessness and social inequality.

 

Borden was born November 8, 1928, in the small eastern Ontario town of Athens, the only child of George and Beatrice (Trotter) Purcell.  He studied philosophy at Bishops University in Quebec. He considered becoming a lawyer, but then felt the priesthood was more his calling so he attended the Faculty of Divinity, Trinity College, Toronto. (While there he won the Doo-Little Prize for the greatest advancement in diction and enunciation.) 

                                                            graduation photo from Trinity 

He was ordained as an Anglican priest in 1954. He went to New York City to learn hospital chaplaincy, work for the United Nations, and become involved with the underprivileged blacks and Hispanics of the lower east side slums. “You couldn’t work in a parish in that part of New York," Borden said, “without coming face to face with prejudice and the problems faced by minorities.” He was active in the civil rights movements of the 1950s; in the early 1960s he led a group of Ontario Christian & Jewish leaders on a march in Alabama organized by Martin Luther King, Jr. When he returned to Canada, he took up other causes such as womens and native rights. As an Anglican priest, he fought for his church’s ordination of women.

In New York City, Borden met and married an Oklahoma nurse, Carter Dorwat. They had three children. They returned to Ontario and Borden was pastor in St. Catherines, Oakville (St. Hilda’s 1959-1964), Thorold (St.John’s),  and Ottawa (St. John the Evangelist(1968-1982)); he was Canon of the Diocese of Ottawa while  rector of St.John’s.  (A Canon in the Anglican church is an honourary title given to some senior or retired priests.) Borden felt it vital to bring the neighbourhood, the real world, into the church and often said he wrote his sermons with “the Bible in one hand and The Globe and Mail in the other.” He called his philosophy “radical hospitality.”

Purcell was an active board member at the national level of the Primates World Relief and Development Fund. The PWRDF was founded after the Springhill, N.S., mining disaster when the Anglican church felt the need for an efficient process to deliver emergency assistance. (Today the PWRDF is the Canadian Anglican church’s response to emergency relief, refugees, development, and social justice.) Borden was co-chair of the Ottawa diocesan committee on international affairs. He was a delegate to many international meetings and organized conferences on racism, refugees and other disadvantaged groups. 

In 1978, he offered mass to the 70 Ottawa Chileans who had been on a 7 day hungers strike in to protest status of political prisoners in Chile. “We are greatly inspired by your courage and witness to truth and justice,” said Purcell in St. John’s Anglican Church.

The Ontario Human Right Commission was formed in 1962 with one full-time staff member (Dr. Daniel Hill). Its mandate was to administer Ontario’s Human Rights Code, to prevent discrimination through public education and policy, and to look into situations where discriminatory behaviour might exist.

In 1978, Borden received an out-of-the-blue phone call from Ontario Premier Davis’ office asking if he would accept an appointment to the Ontario Human Rights Commission. “Honest to God” Purcell said. “I don’t know what my functions are. I’m not sure how much I’m getting. We haven’t been given much information.” But Purcell said yes to the appointment. He did find out that his role was to apply the mandate of the Human Rights Code, that the commission would meet twice a month and that he would receive $75 a day. He would hold his appointment for ten years. 

Purcell was especially keen to ensure that handicapped people were not discriminated against. His wife, Carter, experienced that kind of prejudice; confined to a wheelchair because of multiple sclerosis, she was unable to navigate stairs. “She didn’t know there were so many steps in the world. Everywhere you go, it’s either upstairs or downstairs… I think we should be very careful to give every handicapped person every possibility of living in Ontario. The time has come” Borden said, “to make the physically disabled feel they have something to contribute to society. Just the problem of going back and forth to work in a wheelchair could cut $2000 a year from a person’s salary”. Purcell was also concerned about equal pay for women, and the recurring reports of racial prejudice in the province. “A need exists to provide more public education for police and other groups with respect to racial discrimination and ethnic rights.  Perhaps this could be part of the training for recruits in police college. Racial prejudice could be merely by the tone a policeman uses in questioning a black or Pakistani.”

“Human rights is a world-wide concern” he said. “It doesn’t matter whether the violations exist in Africa, Asia or Ontario. Whoever is need of help is my neighbour.”  “Dealing with Ontario human rights issues may not be as dramatic as marching in Alabama. But is just as important.”

In 1978 Borden supported proposals for a major revision of Ontario legislation in human rights; he wanted to see the 16-year-old Human Rights Code ‘updated’, loopholes in the code plugged, and action taken to give the commission the staff and resources it needed to do an effective job. By 1985, the commission had a staff of 101 and a budget of $5 million. By 1986, the commission was looking at 1700 complaints yearly.

The first Ontario Human Rights code was enacted in 1962 and it consolidated various anti-discrimination provisions.  In June 1982, a revised and much stronger Human Rights Bill became law. The new amendments made it illegal to discriminate against a person in accommodation or employment on the grounds of disability, marital status, or age. The largest single new protected group were the physically and mentally handicapped. Discrimination on the grounds of disability was now prohibited in employment, accommodation, and services. The new Code prohibited sexual harassment by employers. Racial minorities would be protected from both written discrimination and verbal harassment. Purcell was particularly pleased that the new Human Rights code included a clause that barred discrimination on the basis of “marital and family status” as it dealt with the old stereotype that there was something the matter with single-parent families. (Critics felt the new bill did not go far enough as it did not provide protection for language, political rights and sexual orientation and did not require employers to provide access for handicapped persons. Purcell was one of group of Anglican clergy that supported inclusion of gay rights in the bill.)

Borden became a part-time member of the Ontario Human Rights Commission in 1978. In 1982 he was appointed Chair of Commission, a position he held until 1988. He earned $73,123 annually.

As chair, he knew it was vital to explain the new amendments to the public.  Purcell realized that many Ontario citizens were conservative and wary of big government telling them what they must do. But he emphasized that the Human Rights Commission was not designed to impose big government, but rather it was a “people-helping group” that focused on assisting and protecting those least able to help themselves—the poor, the handicapped, immigrants who did not speak English or were afraid to speak out. In the 1980s, when Purcell was chair, many of the cases involved sexual harassment or sexual discrimination. He also pointed out that in 9 of 10 complaints to the commission, officials were able to work out an agreement between the complainant and the employer or landlord. Purcell cited one case where dozens of people applied for a position but no one over the age of 39 was granted an interview. Proof of ageism appeared when one of the company’s personnel officers wrote on an applicant’s file ‘Perfect qualifications, but too old—may lack drive.’ The commission ordered the company to go through the selection process again and to give fair consideration to the older applicants.

Fighting such things as systemic prejudice became a large part of Purcell’s job. Systemic prejudice occurs when an employer’s requirements automatically eliminate some groups. For instance, a police force’s height and weight requirements may unintentionally bar women and some racial groups. And Borden knew that prejudice had become more sophisticated and subtle. He was concerned about antisemitic incidents—graffiti, vandalism, telephone threats, hate literature—on both national and international scales.

In 1984, in his role as Chair of the Ontario Human Rights Commission, Borden was part of a team visiting Jewish Refuseniks, Jews denied emigration out of the Soviet Union. In those times, visitors could be thrown in jail for transporting goods to Soviets or conniving against the state. Borden had been given strict instructions for his arrival in the USSR: simply to say, when searched and questioned about the articles in his luggage, to say “for personal use”. So, to each article unveiled, Borden dutifully answered “for personal use”. Finally, the female customs official pulled out a pair of baby’s sleepers, the little slippered feet dangling in the air, and - without missing a beat, Borden nodded at them and said, “For personal use”.

Borden left the OHRC after ten years but then was appointed to the new Canadian Immigration and Refugee Board where he served for six years. He returned to his to log cabin on the shores of Charleston Lake where was minister of Holy Trinity Oak Leaf in his hometown of Athens.

 

There he created a weekend retreat in Celtic spirituality. He read avidly, studied Celtic prayers, travelled to ancient Irish scared sites, and gave Irish genealogy talks.

Borden passed peacefully on September 14, 2011 and was buried in the Oak Leaf Holy Trinity Cemetery, Leeds and Grenville. His wife, Carter, passed in 2020.

From his eulogy: For Borden, friendship was the bond, the Celtic knot. We are the inheritors of Borden’s generosity of spirit, his ready laugh, his insistence on human dignity and community…His admonishment was Do justice. Love kindness. Walk humbly with your God.

 

BORDEN CONRAD PURCELL

     b. Nov. 8, 1928 in Leeds County, Ontario

        m.  Carter Gibson Dorwat (1929-2020) on Jun 22, 1955 in New York City

     d. Sept. 14, 2011 in Brockville, Leeds & Grenville Co.

my 4^th cousin, 1x removed (Homuth-Netterfield line)